Google's Kubernetes project, an orchestration and management system for Docker, is gaining a lineup of collaborators and partners that's reminiscent of how Docker itself garnered such support.

The latest to join the Kubernetes clan is Mesosphere, one of the key developers of the Apache Mesos project, which is best known as the cluster management software that helped Twitter deal with its "fail whale" problems. Rather than work on integrating Kubernetes and Mesos (which is happening), Mesosphere is adding its cluster management functionality directly into Google Cloud Platform.

In a blog post for Google, the folks at Mesosphere detailed a new collaboration with Google to allow their product, Kubernetes, and Google Cloud Platform to work in conjunction. A Google customer can use "a Web app that enables customers to deploy Mesosphere clusters [on Google Cloud Platform] in minutes" and use Kubernetes as integrated into Mesos "to manage the deployment of Docker workloads [in Mesosphere clusters]."

Again, Google is preparing to offer this as a native part of Google Cloud platform, instead of as an item, say, only Mesosphere customers can access. No timeframe has been specified, although the blog post says this "will soon be incorporated into the Google Cloud Platform dashboard via the click-to-deploy feature" and will not cost extra.

Mesosphere's other project, integrating Kubernetes into Mesos, is meant to allow Docker containers to be managed across a Mesos cluster via Kubernetes. Mesosphere's pitch includes being able to run Docker containers in the same cluster as systems running non-Dockerized apps like Hadoop. While Docker images exist for Hadoop, there may be reasons to mix and match containers with non-containerized apps.

Docker has been thrilled by the way its approach to app containerization has been validated through projects like Kubernetes, but its engineers have professed concern that the Kubernetes approach is more Google-centric than need be. Having Mesosphere create a project in this vein seems like further validation of that point of view, but it's also a sign that Kubernetes is attracting the kind of third-party participation Docker believes it needs to widen its approach.